Greater roadrunners are in the cuckoo family and found throughout Texas except uncommonly in deep East Texas. Photo Credit: Kathy Adams Clark. Restricted use.

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ROADRUNNER FACTS

The greater roadrunner races around Texas.

Voice: Doesn't go "beep-beep" like the cartoon character Road Runner but utters a "co-coo-coo-coo-coooo" sound or "whirrr" call. Vocalizations sound either like a metallic dove call or like two sticks being quickly clapped together.

Appearance: Two feet from head to tail with about a 1½-foot wingspan.

Bluish-black head, brownish back with black, tawny and white markings, and streaking on its breast.

Stout, long beak with a hooked tip.

Range: Found throughout the southwest U.S. desert from Southern California to Texas and Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and northern Mexico.

Found throughout Texas but uncommon in deep East Texas.

Lives in a variety of habitats including deserts, grassland, prairies, parks and residential areas. Prefers open areas or forest edges.

Diet: Omnivorous, feeding on creatures such as snakes, lizards, scorpions, spiders, insects, small birds, small mammals and sometimes fruits and seeds.

Will eat food from people as attested by my late mother-in-law in Arizona, who fed a roadrunner hamburger meat in a dog bowl on the back porch.

Nests: Builds a platform nest made of sticks and twigs placed in a bush or small tree.

The funny-acting roadrunner gets its name from a habit of streaking like a pint-size racehorse down roadsides.

With long, skinny yet strong legs, a long tail for balance and an outstretched neck and beak, the roadrunner could be called the thoroughbred of running birds because it can reach speeds of 18 mph. Its common name is greater roadrunner to distinguish it from its Mexican cousin, the lesser roadrunner, a smaller and shorter-beaked bird.

More telling is the scientific name, Geococcyxcalifornianus The genus name Geococcyx roughly translates to earth (from Greek geo) and cuckoo (from Greek coccyx) or "cuckoo of the ground," where it most often dwells. The bird is in the same family as the yellow-billed cuckoos that breed in Texas in the summer. But the roadrunner is the largest North American cuckoo.

The species name californianus refers to the state where the first specimen was labeled. Interestingly, the bird wound up being the state bird of New Mexico, not California. It could just as well have been designated the state bird of Texas, because it resides all year rather commonly throughout the state except for deep East Texas, where it's rare.

The Looney Tunes Road Runner, with its constant cat-and-mouse games with Wile E. Coyote, made the bird internationally famous.

When I was growing up on a farm, I heard my elders call the roadrunner "the snake killer." I've often wondered why that folk name didn't persist, because many times I've seen a roadrunner with a snake trying in vain to wrestle out of the clutch of the bird's robust beak.

A Spanish folk name for the bird is paisano, which loosely translates to "countryman" or "friend of the same region." Because the bird dines on snakes and scorpions, I can understand why people gave it a friendly moniker.

Standing about a foot tall and measuring 2 feet from head to tail, the greater roadrunner races on relatively large feet with two toes pointed forward and two pointed backward. In full gallop, the bird holds its body parallel to the ground with head pointed straight out and tail pointed straight back. The bird occasionally takes flight by quickly flapping a 19-inch wingspan and then gliding to a nearby tree or bush.

The bird's brown plumage streaked with white enables it to blend with ground cover. But when the bird is standing still or running, its perky head with a brushy crest enables people to spy it every time.